Guitar Hero World Tour (Complete Guitar Game) Review

Activision's latest Wii music game is a technical powerhouse, and a great overall package.

The Guitar Hero vs. Rock Band battle is on everyone's mind. The music genre is, for the first time in gaming history, pushing the industry just as hard as sports games, or titles like GTA, and that's a huge success for everyone involved. In the end though, everyone's going to wonder which music game is the best, and that's something that may take a few iterations for us to seriously figure out. By now you've undoubtedly seen our 360/PS3 review of World Tour (or if you haven't, you should click on over and check it out) and have seen that our sister sites have all but confirmed that Rock Band 2 takes the prize for this generation, due to some odd band-making issues, interface problems, and general continuity that World Tour just doesn't seem to have out the gate. I personally agree with those issues, but when you step into the realm of Wii, things change in a big way. Yes, World Tour has some definite things that need changing, and if it was about your 360/PS3 experience, I'd suggest you at least try to transition into Rock Band as well as Guitar Hero -- even if you're like me, and a long-time Guitar Hero supporter -- as there are a few things in that game that outrank Activision's latest offering, but on Wii specifically, Neversoft had a wildcard, and its name is Vicarious Visions.

We all know the technical limitations that come with working on Wii, and they're issues that hardcore Nintendo fans -- especially those that don't want to invest in a second or third system this generation -- are having to deal with time and time again. There isn't enough space in our fridge -- meaning that Nintendo's console has less than half a gig of storage space internally, and that's used for WiiWare, Virtual Console, Channels, and save data -- so the thought of downloadable content or expanded gameplay is about as far from most gamers' minds as you can get. Guitar Hero World Tour is a first step in a whole new direction for Wii though, and it's that blending of a very fun music game and a pile of new technology worked that puts this game in the must-buy category on Wii.

Let's dive on in.

Band mode is fun, but it needs an interface overhaul. You often can't tell who failed out, star power is wonky, and it's tough to check band status on the fly.

For starters, I want to talk a bit about the core game, what works, and where World Tour misses the boat. To me, both Rock Band and Guitar Hero are still different enough to validate multiple purchases (though on Wii that's more of an issue, since the hardware still isn't fully confirmed to work between both games; something Rock Band 2 is trying to change by allowing the new Guitar Hero guitars to work in MTV's game), and the main reason is that Rock Band 2 is a stronger party experience, while Guitar Hero is still the hardcore music gamer's challenging, breakneck speed music offering, now taken one step further with a full creation mode as well. This year's offering adds vocals and drums -- with a set I personally like much more than Rock Band's hardware -- and builds a very basic band mechanic into the game, but when you peel that all away you'll still find that Guitar Hero is harder overall, and has a full-fledged Guitar Hero experience in there (if you don't want to play as a band, you've still got very challenging guitar parts, pro face-off, online face off, guitar duels, and so much more). So while the IGN crew is in full agreement that we'd rather party with a copy of Rock Band 2 at our side than Guitar Hero's new take on group rock, I can more than see the advantage of having the classic Guitar Hero I know and love at my finger tips, backed by a decent -- not amazing -- band experience.

In fact, both Rock Band and Guitar Hero have a list of issues I wish could be fixed, but what it really comes down to is what works, and what doesn't with both games; it's up to you where you should sink your cash. World Tour's first major advantage is that the hardware is superior to anything I've used over the years, with the new touch pad guitars being a blast for quick finger-tapping regular notes and playing sliding notes during solos. Since the touch pad acts as a strum bar during regular notes and as an auto-play fret during purple highlighted notes (and you've still got a whammy bar for bending notes, as well as a quick slide on the touch pad for a different effect added in), there are more opportunities for showing off in front of friends or during face-off battles. Good stuff.

The drums are also stronger in my opinion, with a quieter rubber pad for the snare and two toms and raised (surprisingly rugged) cymbals. On the software side, you've got all the modes you'd expect from the "next gen" SKUs of Guitar Hero World Tour, and also a new Mii Freestyle mode that's a nice, simple take on something like Wii Music. It's a blast to play, though it'll take some serious skill to make anything that sounds good, so parents beware; it's basically a noise maker mode with depth that younger players may never find. Still, if you're picking up World Tour for a few hardcore gamers around the house, Mii Freestyle is a great add-on mode that -- at least in this reviewer's opinion -- is more rewarding than the whole Wii Music package by Nintendo. There's a reason this game wasn't shown off at Nintendo's latest media summit, and it's because Nintendo knows just how strong other music offerings on Wii really are. Mii Freestyle gives you three back-beats to play off of, and then based on your tilt of the guitar/bass you can add in your own notes (set up in the key of whatever backbeat you're using) and literally jam with a buddy in a two-player free-form mode. Wii Music lets you sprinkle in extra notes between pre-made songs, but Mii Freestyle recreates the experience of improvisation in a way no other music game has really explored on Wii, or any other console for that matter. It's simple, but fun.